Neil Ashton: One by one the trophies are slipping away from Chelsea

Midway through the second half, Chelsea fans in the Matthew Harding Stand started singing for Jose Mourinho. It’s getting messy again.

Then they screamed for Demba Ba, scorer of two on his debut in the FA Cup at Southampton on Saturday, to replace the woeful Fernando Torres. It was tempting to join in.

By the end they were singing for Roberto Di Matteo, winner of the Champions League and FA Cup inside three crazy months last season.

As champions of Europe, Chelsea began
the season with the chance to win a trophy at every turn. Community
Shield, European Super Cup, European Cup, Premier League, FA Cup,
Capital One Cup and FIFA Club World Cup were all within their grasp.

Defeat: The Capital One Cup may be beyond Chelsea after their loss to Swansea

One by one the silverware is slipping
away. Even the Capital One Cup appears to be beyond them after they were
beaten at home in the first leg by Michael Laudrup’s rhythmic Swansea
side.

Michu, the man Arsene Wenger infamously referred to as the striker ‘bombed out by clubs in Spain’, and substitute Danny Graham are meddling in Chelsea’s affairs and putting Swansea within sight of next month’s final at Wembley.

This is not going according to plan for a club who might already have won three trophies this season.

Even the European Cup will be taken
out of the Stamford Bridge cabinet soon as it begins UEFA’s trophy tour
around England before it settles at Wembley on May 25.

Howler: Michu capitalised on Ivanovic's mistake to give Swansea the lead

Roman Abramovich wanted it all,
spending lavishly in the summer by recruiting £80million worth of talent
for Di Matteo to destroy the opposition.

Abramovich turned to Rafa Benitez when
it went wonky in November but Chelsea are already running out of
competitions under their interim manager.

The absentee owner expects his £1bn
investment to win every trophy. Chelsea had blown the defence of the
Champions League by the time Benitez arrived, but the warning signs are
starting to glow.

Chelsea can forget about winning the
Barclays Premier League for a fourth time under Abramovich this season,
they were beaten in the Community Shield, won by Mourinho and Carlo
Ancelotti, in August, and that was quickly followed by the 4-1 defeat by
Atletico Madrid in the European Super Cup.

Repeat: Ivanovic made another costly error as Swansea won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge

Benitez’s big chance was the
FIFA Club World Cup in Yokohama, a competition he had previously won
with Inter when he replaced Mourinho in 2010.

As Chelsea supporters prepare to
acknowledge a decade under Abramovich’s ownership, they appreciate his
obsession with silverware. That’s the way things are when the owner is
signing some of the biggest players in world football.

Pep Guardiola, a managerial target
when his New York sabbatical ends, won 14 of the 18 trophies he competed
for at Barcelona. He won three La Liga titles and two European Cups but
he snaffled Super Cups, Supercopas de España and FIFA Club World Cups
as a matter of course.

That’s what the big clubs do and Benitez can expect a sharp reminder that winning silverware is all that counts at this club.